The Die is Cast

The mask is finally off. The government’s obsession with gold has now hardened into unmistakable policy: a state refinery under the Goldbod, and the silent flood of excavators into our ports headed straight for the galamsey fields. If any Ghanaian still harbored illusions that this administration would be different from the reckless gold fixation of its predecessor, those illusions must end here. The die is cast.

Just months ago, the NDC’s fiercest voices warned against the environmental devastation and financial futility of small-scale mining capture. Today, those same voices are muted. Goldbod has become the darling of government communications, its exports credited with shoring up the cedi, its refinery hailed as “value addition,” while communities choke on mercury, rivers die, and farmland turns to mud.

The announcement that Ghana has surpassed large-scale mining with small-scale exports is being presented as a victory. In truth, it is nothing short of an indictment: an admission that our economy is being balanced precariously on the backs of environmental ruin and informal networks ripe for political rent-seeking.

Worse still, the country is being inundated with excavators. Over 200 enter our ports daily, according to the Transport Minister—an invasion, he calls it. Each machine is a weapon against our rivers, forests, and food systems. These machines are not creating value. They are destroying the very foundation of Ghana’s survival. That this surge comes at a time when the Ghana Water Company and GRIDCo are sounding the alarm about the crippling effects of galamsey is no coincidence. We are feeding the beast even as it consumes us.

Meanwhile, the President’s brother circles the Black Volta project, threatening to entrench the very “party-family-business” nexus that has destroyed public confidence in government. Goldbod, led by a party henchman with no credible track record in economic management, is consolidating its grip over a sector that is far too strategic, far too dangerous, to be handed over for partisan profit.

No amount of spin about beneficiation or reserves can obscure the reality: this is political capture of gold. And once entrenched, it will be nearly impossible to unwind.

The lesson of the last government could not be clearer. Galamsey destroyed lives, water bodies, and the electoral fortunes of the NPP. If the NDC does not turn back, they will not only repeat history, they will accelerate the collapse. Already, the good early gains in fiscal discipline and cedi stabilization are being undermined by this headlong rush into fool’s gold.

For some of us, the verdict is already written: this is failure. Unless there is an abrupt turnaround—an end to galamsey incentivization, an overhaul of Goldbod’s structure, and a redirection of resources into productive, sustainable sectors—this government will pay dearly in 2028.

We will not forget. And we will not forgive.